Semiotic Love
by Chibified Zombie
Summary: Don't be afraid of me, Alice... I'll see you again soon... We'll finish what we started... [WalterXOC, sort of] R&R's please! [:
1. Dead?

[[Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or places in this story except for Alice. Credit to Davey Havok, Jade Puget, and Blaqk Audio for inspiring the name.

xxxx

_Lying on the tattered, blood-stained sheet, just like the night before, and the night before that. Another night that young Walter was stuck inside that awful cell. He knew that the pig was watching him as he lay there, staring at the writing on the walls of the people of the past.  
**THEY'RE WATCHING ME. PLEASE... FRESH AIR... HELP ME...**_

_He could do nothing, of course, and he didn't care to even bother; if they had been in here, they were long dead._

_Still, he couldn't help the usual feeling of being watched, and not just from the middle room either; as though a hundred disembodied eyes were inside the walls, watching his every move just like they did. He snuggled closer to the sheet, somehow finding a small bit of comfort in it, despite the marks of its previous owners splattered all over the fabric. The thought of children like himself, maybe even younger than he was, being tortured right where he lay did not affect him; he was used to it by now. It was the thought of more eyes on him, adding to the countless number that had been watching him since his birth, was what frightened him the most. He hated all of them, no matter who they were or what they had done._

_A girl's scream pierced the stone walls like a translucent bullet. Walter didn't even look up. Another one of the things that did not affect him anymore; hearing someone as they were tortured or even as they died, that didn't spook him in the slightest. But as he listened to her cry out, he noticed they were getting louder, as if approaching him. Walter sat up on the cot and gave the locked door a suspicious look. Louder the screams became, and they began to irritate him. Did that girl ever quiet herself?_

_As he began to suspect that she wouldn't allow him to sleep at all, the lock on the door clicked, and the door was wrenched open by the meaty hand of the pig himself. Walter backed to the wall, his eyes on the filthy mattress. He could feel the pig's own eyes on his bent head, and heard him snort in disgust. "Filth..." Walter heard him spit. Something was dropped onto the floor, footsteps, and his head was clasped in the bone-crushing grip of Andrew DeSalvo. His foul breath made Walter want to gag as he snarled in his face, "Got you a new 'playmate,' Sullivan!" A horrible laugh rang through the room as the terrible man strode confidently out the door, slamming it shut and locking it once again._

_Silence fell over the room, interrupted only by a soft noise coming from the ground. Walter slid off the mattress and looked at what DeSalvo had left him -- this new "playmate" of his._

_It was another child around his age; a girl of about eight years old lay curled up in a ball at his feet. She was shivering, and a brownish water dripped from her matted hair. Her pale cheeks were flushed with red from being slapped so many times, and tears streamed from her eyes as she sobbed quietly. There was something about her that was almost... pitiful? The girl wiped her eyes, her small hands balled into fists, and stared in fury at the graying stone floor. "I hate him... I hate him..." she mumbled to herself, in almost a chanting rhythm. She drew her knees to her chest and breathed._

_Walter shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. He had never really been comfortable around girls; they laughed at him just as much as the boys did. But he could vaguely remember them picking on her, too - dragging her off the swings by her ankles, throwing plastic balls at her head, pushing her into mud puddles. He coughed awkwardly, causing her to start._

_"Who's--" Her eyes fell on Walter, and an embarrassed look fell over her. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there!" She looked down at her fists and back at the boy. He turned his head away from her for a moment, and grabbed the sheet from off the bed. He handed to her, keeping his gaze pointedly at the wall. She stared at the sheet for a moment, her eyes on the blood spatters on it, but it was the best that he could muster. She gave him a feeble smile and took the sheet like a towel to her soaked hair_

_After a few moments of silence, she asked in a tiny voice, "What's your name?"_

_He took his eyes off the wall and gave her a shy look. "Walter."_

_She smiled. "Walter… I'm Alice." She held out her hand; Walter flinched back. Alice laughed. "Come on, Walter, I don't have 'cooties,'" she extended her hand further, and Walter reluctantly took it, blushing slightly._

xxxx

Alice woke with a small cry, breathing heavily as though she had been running a long distance. She looked around carefully; she was no longer in that dingy cell, she was back in her apartment… She sighed with gratitude and laid back down against her pillow. She watched the lights of cars passing on the streets shine through the window onto the ceiling above her, calming herself.

_Easy, girl. Get a hold of yourself. Why are you acting like that was such a big deal anyway? That's ancient history; why would you be acting as if it were a nightmare? _

She sat up again and switched on the lamp beside the bed, quietly slipping from under the covers and into the small bathroom across the hall from her room.

_It's been two years, girl. Don't think about him, it'll only make you miserable again._

xxxx

_Day 734:_

_No idea why the hospital is still making me write in this. They say it's because trauma never heals, and that I could snap again at any moment. I always thought it had been an excuse to keep me paying for the medications, but…_

_I had a dream about him. For the first time since his death, I dreamed of my childhood, of that terrible cylinder prison, the pig who tortured me. But the funny thing was -- it was from HIS point of view, not mine. How is that even possible? I have no idea what he thought when he saw me, or what was going through his mind when he first heard me scream as that man tortured me. So why is it that I could see through his eyes? Was I just making it all up? Or is he…_

_No, that's crazy, he DIED! I saw it on the news, I visited his grave so many times I could walk there blindfolded. I'm just spooked, that's all. Just scared…_

_Alice_

xxxx

Alice tucked the little blue diary back to its hiding spot in the cabinet under the sink and opened her medicine cabinet, taking one of the only bottles that wasn't already emptied and dragging herself out of the bathroom. She felt dizzy, and her head was pounding. She took a glass from the kitchen counter and opened her refrigerator, pulled out a bottle of water, and poured it into the glass. Her hands trembled slightly, as though she were frightened; but she didn't feel scared of anything. There was nothing to be afraid of in her apartment, really, aside from the doctors who kept visiting to try to convince her to come back to the hospital. She popped two pills into her mouth and took a swig of water.

_That's quite unlike you, Alice._

Alice froze as a voice rang through her head. She set the glass down and glanced around her apartment. No one was here…

_I'm not here, Alice…_

"Who are you?" she said aloud in a shaking voice. The doctors had never told her she might hear things, too.

_I'm not in your head, Alice, and I'm surprised at you for not remembering me…_

Someone knocked her front door… once… twice…She scurried to the door and looked through the peephole. She screamed in shock.

_Don't be afraid of me, Alice…  
I'll see you again soon…  
We'll finish what we started…_

Alice shook her head, a tear rolling down her cheek as she sunk to the floor. How was this possible? Why now? Why after she had just gotten used to having a normal life? The tears fell silently as she remembered his face in through the door… He looked exactly the same as the last time she had seen him…but…

_Walter...?_

xxxx

_Day 734 [[5:20 AM:  
Couldn't sleep. Still getting over the shock of it all.  
Walter came to me. He spoke to me, he was outside my apartment, but he seemed... different...  
It wasn't like a visit from a dear old friend, and he would be the dearest of them all; but this is from beyond the fucking grave! And the worst part is how I feel like this is just another illusion, some unknown side effect of the pills they have me taking. I really shouldn't be writing this at all; I know someone from the hospital is probably going to read this and come to the conclusion that I need more help, but if this were a real diary and not just another health log from the patient's point of view, I would write about how much I missed him in the two years that I've gone without him. I miss him enough to make up crazy illusions and dream of the cylinder prison. I miss him enough that I could die, right now, just keel over and die, just to be united with him again...  
But maybe, just maybe, that might not be necessary anymore..._

_Alice_

xxxx


	2. Mind Numbing

[[Disclaimer: Still not claiming ownership of anyone but Alice... Walter shall be in this one more!

Chapter 2: Mind Numbing

_Day 741_

_4:21 PM_

_Got excused from work today. I guess I'm really starting to show how exhausted I am. I haven't slept since Walter came, and I feel like such a zombie. I can't bother to hide it anymore. I guess Marty could tell, because he pulled me off to the side before I started waiting on people and asked me if I needed to take the day off. I knew that Dr. Fischer would murder me if I missed work, so I refused the offer. But I think I should have just taken it before, because Marty ended up having to drive me home after I put jalepenos on a lady's pancakes._

_He's a really great boss, though; he's going to pay me half wages every day that I'm taking my little vacation, as long as I "come back ready to work." The only way I can come back is if I sleep, but how do I do that when my body won't allow me to? I love Marty and all, he's a great guy; but I think HE should try getting visited by dead people sometime. He'd probably make some worse mistakes than a mistaken breakfast topping. _

_Alice_

Alice closed her daily log and set it back on the nightstand between energy drink cans, chocolate wrappers, and a two-liter bottle of Arizona iced tea. The nightstand was one of the more organized parts of her apartment in its disastrous state. It looked like a tornado had swept through it over the course of the past week - there were empty bottles, food wrappers, and untouched microwave dinners littering the tiled kitchen floor, giant splashes of Red Bull stained the carpets where she had been especially careless, the cushions dangled haphazardly on the edge of the couch... She hated living in a "pigsty," as mothers called this kind of mess... _Mother..._

"Agh!" she groaned in pain suddenly, her hand jumping to her forehead. "Another damn headache..." she sighed. "Where'd I put the aspirin..."

It took almost all of her strength just to sit up on the mess of tangled sheets, and she nearly collapsed standing, but somehow Alice managed to stumble across the hall into the bathroom.

It was somehow worse in the bathroom that anywhere else. Among the empty cans and such were empty pill bottles, their contents scattered across the white tiles like tiny colored beads. The bath tub was full of water left unused, and it reeked of mildew already. She stepped gingerly over the bottles to the medicine cabinet, where the mirror confirmed that she looked as terrible as she felt.

_Is that me? _she couldn't help but think as she stared at this stranger, the one with the bloodshot sunken eyes, the matted and tangled hair hanging over her face in all the wrong places, and the tear stains tracking grey streaks down her cheeks from her week-old mascara. _God, no wonder Marty let me off today. I look like shit!_

She made a face just to confirm that this was real, and sighed when she saw the girl copy her. _Well, if Walter comes I hope he's happy he made his friend one of the living dead._

She opened the medicine cabinet to find that there wasn't much left in there. She had stopped taking her medication, but Dr. Fischer wasn't coming for another six days anyway. She could get away with it if she just flushed, she figured. But they obviously weren't going to be of much use now that most of them were strewn across the floor. All that remained after she ransacked her "pharmacy" were two bottles of Prozac and a half-empty bottle of aspirin. "Whatever works..." she said aloud, taking the bottle of aspirin off the shelf and making sure to keep the door of the cabinet open. She didn't want to see herself this way.

Alice felt her head give one especially insistant thump that nearly blinded her in pain. "Will you quit it?" she moaned, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. "Ohhh, Walter, you're driving me insane!"

Alice kicked one of the bottles in a random direction, sending more pills flying across the room. She breathed a heavy sigh and wished she could make herself pick them up.

xxxx

_So here I am again... On the couch, with pills and iced tea and my television and my mess... I'm such a fat bastard._

Alice knew that her 127 lb didn't exactly count for "fat bastard" level, but she still felt like the laziest slob alive. "My maid's on vacation," she said to herself, chuckling at her own movie reference and popping two of the aspirin into her mouth, followed quickly by a swig of ginseng and honey. She propped herself up against one of the comfy white pillows and stared blankly at the television, waiting for sleep to finally hit (she knew it wouldn't happen, but she needed something to pretend to have faith in). She took the remote from the coffee table and turned on the tv, waiting for her VHS (A/N: LOLANTIQUES! Keep in mind that this all is taking place in around 1994, so no DVDs for a while) to rewind the tape. It clicked and began her favorite movie for as long as she could remember, Alice In Wonderland.

She leaned back on the couch, facing the television on her side. As Movie Alice chased the rabbit down the rabbit hole, she thought to herself _I feel like I'M in a rabbit hole... Where are the floating pieces of furniture and talking bunnies?_

By the time Movie Alice had reached the talking doorknob, Alice suddenly realized that her heart was pounding painfully in her chest, and an unexplained feeling of dread was beginning to take hold of her.

_Will you relax already?_ she snapped at herself. _Why can't you ever figure out that he's GONE?_

_What made you think I was gone, Alice?_

Alice's heart jumped into her throat, and her head jerked up in shock at the sound of his voice. She sprung off the couch when she saw the shadow - there, in the hallway. Without a doubt, the height and body of a man. It only appeared for a few seconds before it disappeared down the hall. It was such a tease - she wanted so desperately to follow him, but...

_What if this is a trick? What if it's a burglar or an axe murderer or--_

_Oh, but there's always been an axe murderer in your house..._

"What's that supposed to mean?" she shouted aloud.

No answer.

_I'm really getting tired of this crap..._

She glanced at the kitchen, but the slight gleam of determination that appeared in her eyes sizzled out almost instantly.

_Aw hell, what am I thinking? The hospital made sure I didn't have anything sharp in the house, the closest thing to a weapon I have is a plastic butter knife! What's the use?  
_

_What's the use indeed... however, even if you had more than a butter knife, I doubt even the sharpest blades you could muster could truly harm me._

Still confused, Alice frantically scanned the room for anything she could at least whack him over the head with. _Can't exactly hurt someone with a rolled-up People magazine... I'm not even touching that whiffle bat... oh!_

She caught sight of an umbrella propped up against the wall by the door. _Eh, I'm probably going to die anyway. Might as well hit him a couple times for making me so goddamn paranoid._

She made her way to it and bent to pick it up when something caught her eye. Small and filthy and a crinkled white color... a piece of paper, slipped underneath the door frame. Her brain was trying with all its strength to control her curiosity, to get her to focus on the problem at hand, but she couldn't resist. She strayed away from the umbrella and picked up the tiny paper. It felt extremely aged; the paper felt like it would disintegrate into dust if she unfolded it too fast, like it had been under the door for a thousand years. She slowly folded back the edges, trying not to harm this little note. Something told her it was important somehow.

She reached the final fold in the paper. Seconds (or were they minutes? Hours? Years?) ticked by. Something warm was bubbling in the pit of her stomach, filling her up to her toes, a feeling she couldn't quite place. It felt something like deja vu - but this had never happened to her before...

Something was wrong. This writing... It was unreadable, a child's chicken scratch! "Of course..." Alice sighed, "It's just a worthless piece of paper! Why can't it just--"

Her eyes caught the writing again. Something flashed in her head - an image of some sort of seal... two children crouched in front of a door...

"AAAGH!" Alice cried out in pain, clutching her head and falling to her knees. It was as if something had set off an explosion in her brain - waves of agony hit her one after the other, until she was on the ground, nearly unconscious, with the image of the writing burned into her mind over the picture of the strange, yet familiar symbol:

_Mom, Why doesn't u Wake Up?_

x x x x

_The woman's hand swung forward and struck her across the face. "Idiot!" she shouted in the girl's face. "You fucking pathetic waste of life! Why do they even keep you here?!" She pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the stomach. The girl whimpered in terror and pain, but the kicks and punches kept coming. _

_**Why does she always do this to me?**_

_**Why do the grown-ups hate me so much?**_

_**Why can't they all just die?!**_

_"You're a fucking monster!"_

_"Monster..." the girl said, barely audible over the woman's heavy breathing. She felt herself being dragged up off the floor by the collar of her shirt and shoved against the wall, but her body had gone strangely numb. _

_"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" the woman roared, her face only inches from the girl's._

_"YOU'RE THE MONSTER!" the girl bellowed right back. With inhuman force the girl grabbed her arm and tore it away from her own; the woman was wrenched backward and sent flying into the wall on the other side of the room. A large crack formed behind her from the impact, blood seeping through the cracks from the woman's bleeding skull. _

_The woman coughed up blood and moaned in agony, but her body was paralyzed by the pain, stuck against the wall. The girl inched toward the dying woman, her eyes glowing an emotionless yellow. _

_"Disgusting..." the girl said in an icy whisper that seemed to fill the whole room. She took the woman's neck in her tiny hands and squeezed. Her neck burst apart, sending blood and chunks of skin flying across the room. She let go and let the body slump to the floor, a long line of blood from the explosion streaked on the wall._

_A moment passed in silence. The girl merely stared down at the body, blinking rapidly. She raised her hands and saw the blood of the woman who had tormented her for so long... "Oh God..." she whispered faintly, her eyes wide in terror. "What have I--"_

_Her hands covered her face, and she fell to the floor weeping. The stench of the blood on her hands was almost unbearable, but she couldn't help herself from crying._

_"God, forgive me!" she cried._

_Footsteps outside._

_The door burst open, and a white light flooded the room, blinding her..._

_An old woman stood in the doorway, nodding for her to follow her._

_"Leave the body, child."_

_She gulped down the tears and stood on shaking legs. She crept uneasily to the old woman and stared at her with wide eyes. The light behind her was so bright, she couldn't see her features clearly._

_"I know who you are," she said with a rasping voice. "You're searching, aren't you?"_

_The child looked away, back to the dead body against the wall, but the old woman took her head in her hands and turned it to face her, smiling a crooked smile._

_"Pay no mind to Sister Morgan. She deserved her fate, for what she did to you, child, was enough to earn her a lifetime of punishment."_

_There was silence as the girl processed it all. Had they known the whole time about the beatings? _

_"I have a surprise for you. Do you want to know what it is?"_

_She nodded slowly, still uneasy about this stranger._

_"Would you like to see your mommy?"_

_Another crooked smile, and the light behind her glowed brighter and brighter, filling her vision completely - and the only sound was a little girl shouting "Yes!"..._

x x x x

Alice felt her body lurch upward, gasping for breath. Her senses were returning to her slowly, but she still felt as if she were in that room... She gulped down fresh air and tried to make sense of her surroundings. Her eyes were blurry and wet, and she could feel drying streaks on her face where tears had been.

"What a nightmare..." she sighed, leaning her head back against her pillow. It was soaked with sweat. Alice shuddered and eased herself back upright. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness. It must have been really late, because despite the fact that she lived in the middle of the city there were no sounds of traffic on the road. In fact... she listened closely and couldn't hear a single sound; all the simple noises that she was so used to had just vanished.

"A dead silence," she said to herself, chuckling at her own joke, but it still didn't ease her furiously beating heart. It wasn't just the nightmare that was spooking her. She knew that she was back in her own bedroom, but something felt different about it. There was an almost complete absense of color, and she couldn't help but feel out of place, even among her own possessions.

She felt herself shiver, and realized how cold she was. The temperature in the room had dropped at least twenty degrees in just a few seconds. She pulled the blanket close to her but it felt as though she were draped in ice. Teeth chattering, she eased herself out of her bed. The carpet felt like frozen marble on her feet, but she ignored it and shuffled to the door.

"God... h-how'd it g-get so c-c-cold?" she sighed, rubbing her hands together and trying to find a little bit of warmth. It didn't help her at all, nor did it ease the sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. She placed her hand on the doorknob, and instantly recoiled. It was blazing hot.

"Damn it!" Alice cursed, popping her scorched fingers into her mouth. "Just my luck, there's a fucking FIRE, too... Guess I might as well just sleep until I get burned to death and--"

She froze on her way to returning to the bed, her eyes fixed on the other side of the room. She thought she had heard something, and now it was confirmed. There he was, leaning against the wall and gazing out of the window as though in a trance. He didn't move at all, but she could feel a cold hand placed over her mouth, and the whisper against her ear didn't sound like it was coming from her head; "Don't scream."

He looked almost exactly like she remembered him, how the posters and the newspapers had described him; early twenties, the same shaggy brown hair that was currently hiding his face from view, the same blue coat that he always wore...

"They kept you in this vile state..." he said quietly, not taking his eyes off the window. "...this pill-induced dream of yours..."

He turned from the window and his eyes bored into hers, yellowed and hollow with the absence of life.

Alice blinked, still not believing what she was seeing. "W-Walter," she stuttered, searching for her words, "but y-you were--"

"Dead?" he finished the sentence, flashing a wicked grin at her and chuckling. "You'd be amazed by what else I can do... You WERE, in any case... Back before you betrayed me."

In an instant he was in front of her, inhuman speed taking advantage of her mortality. Alice jumped in surprise and stumbled back against the wall, her breath increasing and her head pounding again. _My head..._

Walter took a step closer to her, his head cocked to the side in mock confusion. "Why do you still insist on running away from me, Alice?" he asked her in an irritatingly calm voice. He took her hand in his - a shiver inched down her spine at his touch, ice against her skin. "What have I ever done to hurt you?" His fingers slid up her wrist. One part of her wanted to slap him. The other half... she wasn't sure.

_Why do I run, anyway? I'll only get caught in the end. Just like now... Well, maybe I'm running because I'm being visited by a psychopath serial killer from beyond the grave._

Walter smiled. "Well, you're quite the thinker, not the babbler," he said quietly. "It's much better than the others. Must more... submissive." He squeezed her wrist, sending shockwaves through her body. She wrenched it away from him and spat, "You're insane!"

Walter looked back up at her, the same confusion act returning to his face as she screamed. "Maybe I don't want to relive a childhood, or the job that I never wanted in the first place! You haunt me, you make me hear voices, you disappear for so long and then... then..."

She felt something wet fall onto her cheek. She hadn't realized until now that she was crying, but there they were. Just like so many times at the graveyard, unexplainable tears over a man who she could willingly kill at this moment - but as much as she wanted to rant at him, chew him out and spit and snarl and lash until he couldn't just stand there looking so god damn smug, she couldn't find the words anymore. Nothing would fit her rage anymore, no words angry enough, miserable enough, desperate enough...

Yet all he did was watch her, that same grin planted on his face at the sight of her tears. He nodded silently, his hand tracing its way up her arm to her cheek and rubbing the lone tear away from her cheek.

"A part of you will always be mine..." he said softly, cradling her face in icy hands. "...and his."

Without warning, she found herself in his arms. He pressed her against his chest, his hands holding tight against her back, an almost loving vice grip on her body. Alice couldn't hold back a shiver, he was so cold... but something about this moment was familiar... this feeling in her gut... Juicy tears leaked from her eyes as she felt her arms wrap around his waist, unable to explain even to herself why this felt so right.

Minutes passed. What felt like the good amount of an hour passed, but here in his arms time was just a number. Alice's muscles were relaxing, her eyes half closed and her breath coming slow. Her left ear was leaned straight into his chest - no heart beat where it should. Holding a dead man was more comfortable than she had once figured.

"Alice..." he sighed in her ear, a silver puff of frost on the bare skin of her neck. "I'm..."

"Mmm?" she whispered, easing her head up to look at him. He wouldn't look her in the eye, staring away into another direction.

"I'm... sorry," he said, shaking his head slightly.

Alice began to reply, "Why?" but all that came out was a wheezing noise. Something was wrong here. A cold, stinging sensation bubbled in the pit of her stomach, slowly rising. Alice gasped for breath, clung to Walter's jacket for dear life, but it kept growing, the pain doubling by the minute. She felt warm liquid bubbling in her throat, and her eyes darted downward to see what was going on.

She didn't have to look closely. Even with her vision blurred with pain, she could see the stained tip of a silver blade protruding from her body.

Alice choked, blood gushing out of her mouth, the room spinning in all directions as if she were hammered drunk. Her grip on Walter was loosening, but he still held her as though they were still just hugging, like old friends reunited. He leaned in to her ear and whispered, "I thought I was clear... We're finishing the job... You just need to step up and reclaim your place..."

It was too much. A moan of pain, almost a scream, attempted to escape her, but was silenced by icy lips pressed to her own. A smile crept over his face as Walter examined her expression, a bubbling brew of mingled pain and shock and confusion. Finally, he took his hands away from her, backed away as she fell. Alice felt her mind slipping with her body, falling, falling, everything black... and the only sound was Walter's voice.

"We'll see her soon..."

x x x x

A/N: Wow, I had no idea that so much time had passed since I wrote the first chapter! I'm so sorry to all my readers, there's been a lot of shit going on in my life. I got a life, a boyfriend, and his psychotic ex who has some sort of vendetta against me. That whore almost got me expelled just because she took something I said in complete sarcasm as a threat against her life! What a twat...

But anyway, away from my personal bullshit for now.

THANK YOU, CASHOPEIA AND LITTLE MISS READER, FOR BEING MY FIRST FANS:D

I know it takes me a lllooonnngggg time to update these, but I'm really stressed right now, and I really shouldn't be doing this right now because I have two projects due Monday. But my readers deserve it because they're special. :D

PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW, because then I will love you. A lot. :D

Hooray for excessive use of the :D smiley.

:D


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